NASA Planed To Save Future 'Armageddon' !!

It sounds like a Hollywood film script, but NASA has revealed plans to land a spacecraft on an asteroid. British scientists have designed a spacecraft which they claim is capable of saving Earth from a catastrophic asteroid collision.

A team at British space company EADS Astrium has made the spacecraft, called “gravity tractor”, which will be deployed when an orbiting rock is detected on a collision course with Earth — in fact, it will intercept the asteroid and position itself to fly alongside it, just 160 feet from its surface.And, from this position, the ten-tonne craft will exert a small gravitational force on the rock, pulling the asteroid towards it. By gradually modifying its course, over several years, the gravity tractor will slowly shift the asteroid’s trajectory enough to ensure it misses the Earth.

According to the scientists, the spacecraft could divert asteroids that are up to 430 yards across
— big enough to release 100,000 times more energy than the nuclear bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima in 1945.

The plans were revealed in a NASA study by scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Ames Research Center in California, which is due to be published next month.

The experts envisage sending a small team of astronauts on a three-month journey to the asteroid, spending a week or two on the rock’s surface. The capsule would have to attach itself because asteroids, unlike the moon, have almost zero gravity.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has designed a nuclear-warhead-carrying spacecraft, to be launched by the US agency's proposed 's Ares V cargo launch vehicle, to deflect an asteroid that could threaten all life on Earth.The 8.9m (29ft)-long "Cradle" spacecraft would carry six 1,500kg (3,300lb) missile-like interceptor vehicles that would carry one 1.2MT B83 nuclear warhead each, with a total mass of 11,035kg.

A kinetic "bullet" version would use this interceptor design, but have an inert warhead instead of a nuclear one. In both cases the lidar would acquire the target NEO at 5,000km (3,100 miles) distance, with TRP closing velocities of up to 10,000m/s (1,968,503ft/min).

The Marshall study also has a solar collector option that has a very different vehicle design to the warhead and kinetic vehicles. The collector, which is more like an orbiter probe, would maintain station near the NEO and use a 100m-diameter inflatable parabolic collector membrane to focus sunlight into a "thruster" that directs that energy on to the NEO's surface. The heating of surface material evaporates it generating thrust and deflection.

The spacecraft's target near-Earth object (NEO) is the Apophis asteroid, which will pass by the Earth within the orbit of the Moon in April 2029.

For the study, however, its orbit was changed to bring it into a "dead-centre" collision course with Earth and its mass was assumed to be 1,000,000kg. The spacecraft's possible launch dates were 2020 and 2021.

By the 2020's NASA concluded that "the nuclear interceptor option can deflect NEOs of (100-500m diameter) two years before impact, and larger NEOs with at least five years warning".

Team member Ralph Cordey was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying: “Anything bigger than 30 metres across is a real threat to the Earth. Unfortunately it is a matter of when rather than if one of them hits us. The gravity tractor exploits the principals of very basic physics —every object with a mass has its own gravity that affects objects around it. It can move fairly large objects 300 metres to 400 metres across”.

“These asteroids are hurtling around our solar system at 10km per second, so when you scale that up, you just need a tiny nudge to send it off course”, he added.

The team has designed the gravity tractor and planned details of the mission. The craft can be built in a relatively short time, using existing technologies, if an asteroid were detected on a collision course. But, it is likely that it would require an international agreement to send a mission in space.

“We’ve designed the mission using the technology we currently have available, so it could be put into practice at any time,” Christian Trenkel, who has worked on the mission plans, said.

The Lander would have a constant thrust motor to keep it in contact with the NEO's surface in the low-gravity environment and have three seismic sensors on the end of three long legs with surface penetrating spikes. The seismic sensors would detect the effect of the observer's impactors' arrival.

40 Indian Students About To Create 'Pico satellite'

40 students from seven engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad are part of a team guided by ISRO to create a 'Pico satellite'.

These engineering students are in no hurry to have fun after classes. They linger in the labs
instead of accepting campus placements.They are on a mission possible: they are busy building the smallest satellite for their country at the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore.

Forty students from seven engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad are part of a team guided by ISRO to create a 'Pico satellite'. The satellite, which resembles a small cube, weighs only 850 gm and has a volume of 1.1 litres. It contains an imaging camera with a 90m resolution and will perform the function of a remote-sensing satellite.

"The challenge is to bring all the features of an ordinary satellite in this miniature form," says
Chetan Angadi, one of the team members. The satellite will be launched in December through PSLV to a 700-km orbit.

The students have prepared a ground station. An antenna has been placed on the terrace to detect the position of the satellite. They will control the satellite from this ground station. All the
chores - from designing to welding and compiling of structures - are done by the students themselves.

The group is a heterogeneous one with students from NITTE, RVCE, BMSIT, MSRIT in Bangalore and IARE, CBIT and VITS in Hyderabad. While the Bangalore students have made Nitte their base, their Hyderabad mates work from their respective college labs.

The students divided themselves into different "sub systems" and carry out the various functions independently. "We did not know anything about it when we began. We learn one step at a time and implement it. That is how we progressed," says Raghavendra S, a core group member.

They are regularly guided by scientists from ISRO. "We try out different options and approach the ISRO. They decide on which option to follow," he says. The work has proved to be a herculean task.

They have been working for the past one-and-a-half years on this project.

The idea was conceived by a group of IV semester students from Bangalore who was inspired by a talk at the International Astronautical Federation in December 2007.

source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NASA's Spacesuits Revolution To Rule The Space...Over The Year !!

Just one day to go to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. On this grate occasion we can't forget the the important role of NASA's spacesuits.

Time has changed and so the NASA's spacesuits.Take a quick look how these spacesuits help astronauts to rule on space..

Gordon Cooper, one of NASA's original seven astronauts chosen in 1959, poses in his Mercury
flight suit. A modified version of a US Navy High Altitude Jet aircraft pressure suit, it had an
inner layer of Neoprene-coated nylon and an outer layer of aluminised nylon

John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, poses in a Mercury suit.
Glenn is the only astronaut to fly in space wearing a both a Mercury suit and a shuttle suit

Future moonwalker Neil Armstrong in his Gemini G-2C Training Suit. Unlike the 'soft' Mercury
suit, the whole Gemini suit was made to be flexible when pressurized

Gus Grissom and John Young flew the first Gemini mission in March 1965. Here they pose in their flight suits with the portable suit air conditioners connected

The Gemini spacesuit was Ed White's personal spacecraft when he left the Gemini IV capsule for
the first American spacewalk on June 3 1965

Engineer Bill Peterson fits test pilot Bob Smyth in an Apollo space suit with a Lunar Excursion
Module restraint harness during testing in 1968. The Apollo suits brought a host of new challenges, with astronauts needing protection against lunar terrain and temperatures as well as
the ability to stoop and bend to pick up moon rocks

Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard during suit checks before his trip to the lunar surface in 1971. Shepard was also the first to wear the Mercury suit into space on the first American flight
in 1961

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon, July 20 1969. Apollo 11 commander
Neil Armstrong is seen reflected in Aldrin's visor

Space shuttle: When the first shuttle flight, STS-1, lifted off on April 12 1981, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen wore the ejection escape suit modelled here. It's a modified version of a US Air Force high-altitude pressure suit

The familiar orange launch and entry suit worn by shuttle crews, nicknamed the "pumpkin suit"
for its colour. The suit includes the launch and entry helmet with communications gear, parachute pack and harness, life raft, life preserver unit, gloves, oxygen manifold and valves, boots and survival gear

Floating Free: In February 1984, shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first astronaut to float in space untethered, thanks to a jetpack-like device called the Manned Manoeuvring Unit. MMUs are no longer used, but astronauts now wear a similar backpack device in case of emergency

The Future: Artist’s concepts depict a futuristic launch and entry suit (left) and a spacewalk suit. NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon by 2020

Dr Dean Eppler wears the MKIII advanced demonstration spacesuit during a 2002 field test of
futuristic technology in Arizona

With his back to a lunar truck concept vehicle, an astronaut captures the scene at Moses Lake,
Washington, during a lunar robot demonstration in June 2008. NASA took their latest concepts to Moses Lake for a series of field tests based on mission-related activities for NASA’s planned
return to the moon by 2020

Astronauts, engineers and scientists wearing prototype spacesuits, driving prototype lunar
rovers and simulating scientific work at Moses Lake, as part of NASA’s demonstration of concepts for living and working on the lunar surface

Recollecting Down 40th Moon Landing Anniversary

As the 40th anniversary of the moon landing approaches, we look at key events in the history of
space exploration...!

3 November 1957: The dog Laika, the first living creature ever to orbit the earth, is launched aboard Sputnik II. Laika dies a few hours after launch, although this is kept secret until 2002.
Instead, the Soviets claim she lived for several days

31 January 1958: The United States launches its own statellite, Explorer I. It remains in orbit
for 12 years, though it stops transmitting data in May 1958. In this photo, Dr Eberhard Rees, Major General John B Medaris, German-born rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, Dr Ernst Stuhlinger, Willi Mrazek and Dr Walter Haeussermann display a full-scale model of Explorer I

12 April 1961: Major Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, becomes first human in outer space and thefirst to orbit the Earth. His craft, Vostok I, circles the Earth at 27,400 kilometres per hour in a flight lasting 108 minutes

5 May 1961: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space, on a suborbital flight lasting just
15 minutes and 28 seconds. Twenty days after this achievement, President John F Kennedy pledges that America will send a man to moon before the end of the decade

....all three crew members - Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee - are killed. The
tragedy leads to a complete redesign of NASA's command modules, and it is nearly 21 months beforethe launch and completion of the next manned mission, Apollo 7

9 November 1967: The Saturn V rocket, which will go on to propel future Apollo spacecraft into
space, has its first test flight

24 December 1968: Astronaut William Anders takes a photograph of the Earth behind the moon' s horizon, during the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned voyage to orbit the moon

16 July 1967: Apollo 11 is launched...

....While Armstrong and Aldrin take part in Extravehicular Activities on the moon's surface, fellow astronaut Michael Collins orbits above

11 April 1970: Apollo 13, carrying James A. Lovell, John L "Jack" Swigert and Fred W Haise, is
launched on a planned trip to the moon. Two days into the mission, a fault in the electrical system produces an explosion in an oxygen tank, leading to a loss of electrical power and failure of both oxygen tanks...

....The crew manages to use the lunar module as a "lifeboat" and they splash back down to Earth
safely

2 March 1972: An unmanned probe, Pioneer 10, is launched. It becomes the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, and the first to make direct observations of Jupiter, which it
passes in December 1973. By most definitions it is also the first craft to leave the solar system.
It sends its last communication back to Earth on January 22 2003, while 7.6 billion miles from
Earth

14 May 1973: Skylab, America's first experimental space station, is launched. It is abandoned in
February 1974, and remains in Earth's orbit until July 1979, when it crashes into Western
Australia. However, the Soviet Union launched the first space station, the Salyut I, on 19 April
1971

15 July 1975: an American Apollo spacecraft docks with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. In a symbolic
gesture, the two mission commanders, Tom Stafford and Alexey Leonov, exchange the first
international handshake in space. After 44 hours together, the two ships separate. This was the
final flight of an Apollo spacecraft and the last manned space mission until...

18 June 1983: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, 20 years after the first
Russian woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova

28 January 1983: The first major catastrophe for NASA, as space shuttle Challenger explodes 73
seconds after take-off...

....all seven crew-members are killed, including a civilian, teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe

24 April 1990: The Hubble Space Telesecope is launched. Soon after it is launched, scientists
discover that the telescope's mirror has been ground incorrectly. The flaw is corrected on a shuttle mission in December 1993, with a further servicing mission in May 2009

4 July 1997: Pathfinder, an unmanned mission launched on 4 December 1996, lands on Mars. Its
rover, named Sojourner, goes on to explore the surface of the planet for 80 days

20 November 1998: The first piece of the International Space Station is launched. It is scheduled to be complete by 2011

2 November 2000: The International Space Station receives its first resident crew: astronaut
Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. They spend four months on board.The space station has been constantly staffed ever since, providing a permanent human presence in space

28 April 2001: Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire, becomes the first space tourist, spending 7 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes in space and orbiting Earth 128 times

1 February 2003: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entering the Earth's atmosphere after 16 days in space. All seven crew-members are killed

Under a cloud-washed sky, spectators watch as space shuttle Endeavour rises majestically from
Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the STS-127 mission to the
International Space Station. Liftoff was at 6:03 p.m. EDT on July 15, 2009, and was the sixth
launch attempt for the mission. The launch was scrubbed on June 13 and June 17 when a hydrogen gas leak occurred during tanking due to a misaligned ground umbilical carrier plate. The mission was postponed July 11, 12 and 13 due to weather conditions near the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy that violated rules for launching, and lightning issues.

Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment
Logistics Module-Exposed Section in the final of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory complex on the station.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Ready To Touch The Sky... Again !!

Countdown clocks resumed ticking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday in preparation for NASA's third attempt to launch space shuttle Endeavour on a construction mission to the International Space Station.

Liftoff is scheduled for 7:39 p.m. EDT on Saturday. Two previous launch attempts in June were canceled due to potentially dangerous hydrogen fuel leaks.

"We're all eager to get Endeavour and her crew on their way to the International Space Station," said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, a shuttle launch manager. "We're ready to fly this mission."

Technicians fixed the leak and last week filled the fuel tank with 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) of supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to test if the repair was successful.

The leak did not reappear, prompting managers to clear Endeavour for launch on a 16-day mission to deliver the final piece of Japan's Kibo complex to the space station.

The Endeavour crew plans to conduct five spacewalks during their stay at the station to install a porch onto Kibo for science experiments, as well as to replace batteries in a solar panel wing and perform other maintenance tasks.

The three-day launch countdown began on Wednesday. The only remaining obstacle appeared to be the weather. Meteorologists predicted only a 40 percent chance that conditions would be suitable for a launch attempt on Saturday.

"We're expecting we'll see some afternoon thunderstorms in the area around launch time," said shuttle weather officer Kathy Winter.

NASA has eight flights remaining to complete construction of the $100 billion station, a project of 16 nations. The agency plans to retire the shuttle fleet next year and develop new spaceships that can travel to the moon and other destinations as well as the space station.

The space shuttle Endeavour, seen here in June 2009, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The
shuttle this week will make a third try at launching for a rendezvous with the International Space Station, after potentially hazardous hydrogen gas leaks twice delayed the mission, space
officials said.

Space shuttle Endeavour commander Mark Polansky makes a few comments after the he and the Endeavour crew arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Endeavour and its crew, scheduled for a July 11 launch, will deliver and install the final elements of Japan Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, a mission specialist on space shuttle Endeavour, arrives with the rest of the crew at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Endeavour and its crew, scheduled for a July 11 launch, will deliver and install the final elements of Japan Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station.

The crew of space shuttle Endeavour, from left, flight engineer Timothy Kopra, mission specialist's Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy, commander Mark Polansky, mission specialist David Wolf, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette and pilot Douglas Hurley arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Cananveral, Fla., Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Endeavour and it's crew, scheduled for a July 11, launch, will deliver and install the final elements of Japan Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station.

In this image provided by NASA the afternoon sun creates shadows on space shuttle Endeavour's external fuel tank as workers remove the seal from the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate on the tank Wednesday June 24, 2009. A hydrogen leak at the location during tanking for the STS-127 mission caused the launch attempts to be scrubbed on June 13 and June 17. NASA plans a fueling test Wednesday July 1, 2009 of shuttle ahead of July 11 launch attempt.

The space shuttle Endeavour sits on launch Pad 39A following a scrubbed launch attempt at the
Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida June 17, 2009. NASA canceled the launch of space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday for the second time after a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak surfaced while the ship was being fueled for flight. The next opportunity to launch Endeavour will be on July 11.

A NASA security officer patrols the waters near the space shuttle Endeavour as it sits on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida June 16, 2009.

The International Space Station as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery. The European Space
Agency said it was in talks to extend the life of the International Space Station and get seats
for its astronauts on future flights to the orbital outpost.